ABOUT ELLEN MAGUIRE

I’m a director, screenwriter and journalist—and the founder of BLISSFIELD.

In the summer of 2022, mid-pandemic, I directed the world premiere of The Formula, by Kathryn Chetkovich, Blissfield's inaugural project, at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, in Santa Cruz, CA. Supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this co-production between Blissfield and SCS opened the full repertory season at SCS, the most highly attended in the company's history, and marked a return to the company’s pre-pandemic programming. For more about that highly theatrical production of The Formula, including the play's development process, click here.

A wildly varied and invaluable set of experiences inform my process as a director. I studied directing and screenwriting at the Columbia University School of the Arts Film Division (a.k.a. the Columbia film school) where I received my MFA and taught screenwriting to undergraduates. I was selected by the faculty for the DRA, an annual award given to three student filmmakers for outstanding achievement. My short films (as director and writer) have been programmed at festivals across the U.S., Canada, Italy and South America.

I began my career as an actor, appearing in film and television and in leading roles in contemporary plays and the classics at theaters big and tiny, some with sky-high budgets and some without wings or a green room. I’ve performed on Broadway, where I made my debut as a young standby opposite Sir Rex Harrison and Glynis Johns, directed by Brian Murray; off Broadway, at so many experimental black box spaces; and across Canada, including the 100-seat Extraspace at the Tarragon Theater, the 630-seat Shoctor Theatre at the Citadel Theatre (an original home of Hadestown) and the 850-seat main stage at the Shaw Festival, in two shows directed by Tony Award nominee Derek Goldby. Memorable experiences include playing Helena (three times) and Titania (once) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miranda in The Tempest, Masha in Three Sisters and both male and female roles in a bare bones production of Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum. Along the way, I've developed, workshopped, directed, produced and/or performed in more than a dozen new plays.

Meanwhile, one hundred and eighty degrees away, in the world of nonfiction storytelling, I’m a freelance journalist with bylines in the Washington Post and the New York Times, among other publications. For clips and more details about that concurrent self, click here.

A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, I grew up in Canada and now live in New York City with my partner, a lawyer specializing in human rights.

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Affiliations
Member:
SDC, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, CAEA, AFTRA

Representation
Film:
Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo
slosslaw.com

Theater:
Baruch & Sendroff LLP
sendroffbaruch.com